Nutcrackers and WIP

I thought I'd put my collection of Nutcrackers on my blog for my Sister. She went to the Ballet on the weekend and enjoyed it as she had never seen it before. I have been slowly collection nutcrackers for a little while. I have a few more but these are my good ones. I always wish that when I went to Germany many many years ago that I had bought one in this little village that we went to. There were 2 shops selling just Christmas things that were really lovely. I bought a collection of small wooden ornaments that look lovely on a tree, but unfortunately I haven't enough room to put one up. I usually put these on our wood heater so the black thing that you can see in the background is the chimney. Unfortunately our fire doesn't have a mantle piece, which at this time of the year would be lovely, but thats another story.
This is my progress on Margaret Gibson. I am currently doing the biblical saying which is over one on 40ct. Takes a while to do.
I find that this saying is very hard to read as it just flows all together. In case you are wonder what it is, it is from Isiah 55 and is:-

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,
and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat;
yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and
without price.

I think that these biblical sayings are part of the charm of antique samplers.

The last picture is another one from my collection of samplers. I did this one earlier in the year to replace the samplers that my son took with him when he moved out.

I'm sure you all know what this one is. It is worked on 32ct linen with just my favourite DMC threads.

Its still raining in the mountains and the last couple of days have been quite cool. A lot of my neighbours have had their log fires going. Crazy for Summer. By looking at the Weather Channel we still have a lot more rain coming for December. Hopefully all this rain is going into the dams down in Sydney. The Blue Mountains are a feeder source for one of the main dams.

Another Golden Oldie and WIP

I have been very busy with things going along in my life. November and December are always busy for my family as not only with Christmas coming along we also have 3 birthdays to celebrate. Tomorrow is the last birthday that we have to celebrate for this year and then its Christmas and not long after Christmas my eldest son is getting married. I have a very busy time coming up.

Anyway,I thought I'd show you another "golden oldie". This is a Carriage House Samplings Sampler called "Mary Elizabeth Kingsford - 1764". She is stitched on 32ct linen. I love CHS's are they seem to appeal to me. I love the deer in this one.


This is my progress on Margaret Gibson. She is moving along nicely although I haven't had much time to move her along a bit faster. I love the colour scheme and I think she will be an absolute stunner when she is finished. I love working on fine linen.

We have had the most incredible few days in the Blue Mountains since last Friday. So much rain and the thunderstorms. My goodness, we have had a lot of both. On Friday afternoon and Saturday I think we could have filled all the dams in Sydney. I was going to do this yesterday morning but we had a thunderstorm around 10.30 a.m. and then a day of continual storms and blackouts so I couldn't post anything.

As I said on Saturday we had a day of continual heavy rain so I decided to get creative and make myself a new necklace. I had a collection of green and pink beads and I put together this one. I now know why these necklaces are so expensive as it took me nearly all day to do. I like jewellery that are in ropes and this one looks nice on.

I also have a collection of blue and gold beads that I am currently making this on. This is my progress so far. It is 4 strands wide at the moment and I have to work in another 2-4 strands. It depends on how thick it becomes. The one above is 6 strands. I think this one will look nice with jeans.

I would like to say thank you to all the lovely people who read my blog and also to the kind people who leave nice comments. They are all greatly appreciated and I love to read them. Thank You.

Travelling Trunk Show at Dragonfly Dreams

I thought I'd show you the beautiful basket of flowers I received last week from one of my sons future in-laws. The flowers are absolutely beautiful and contains roses, lillies and proteas. They sent them to me to let me know that they were thinking of me and also it was my birthday.

I went to visit my friend Karen and her shop Dragonfly Dreams this morning. She currently has a travelling trunk show from The Gift of Stitching.

I quite enjoy this unique magazine and look forward to each issue. Apparently these beautiful ornaments are in the next issue. There are some lovely things coming in it. All I can say is that its a great pity that I don't have enough room in my house for a Christmas tree. Although there are one or two that I might do when my next issue arrives.

This case contains a collection of my favourite projects out of the magazine. I have always thought that the magazine had lovely projects but its not until you actually see them that you realize how beautiful they really are. I love the needlework basket and the sampler needlebook.


If you travel up to Katoomba over the next few weeks call in at Dragonfly Dreams and have a look at them. They are quite amazing. I think they are up here for about 3 weeks.

The Token and Inspiration from Victoria.

I'm sorry that I haven't blogged over the last few days as our modem died and I had to wait for a replacement to be sent to us.

Well I finished the Token. She is quite beautiful. I am quite pleased with her and more importantly Karen is absolutely thrilled with it. Its currently away being framed so she will be displaying it in Dragonfly Dreams when it is returned to her.

I am now currently working on Margaret Gibson from Scarlet Letter. She is beautiful. I love working on very fine linen and this satisfies this love. I haven't done that much but she is currently coming along nicely.
I have another love. I love making and designing jewelery for myself and my sister and future DIL. I saw this collection of jewelery in my favorite magazine, Victoria. (Welcome back I have missed you). When I saw this the creative juices started to flow as I have a very old medallion that belonged to my great uncle who died in 1916 in the battle of the Somme aged 20. I usually wear this on a gold chain on ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day. I is my way of remembering my Grandfathers brother.

I had a string of freshwater pearls that I had made into another necklace that I wasn't wearing so I converted it into the one below. I'm quite happy with it and I think I will get alot of wear out of it.
I thought I'd show you these 2 necklaces that are very special to me. I also love cameos. The large cameo belonged to my Mum and she gave it to me a few years ago. I love wearing it on the pearls as it reminds me of her. The smaller cameo was a present from my Sister. Both cameos came from Italy and I find that since I have added the pearls I wear them more often.
This one I have posted before. I made this as a 21st birthday present for my future DIL. It is very beautiful. It is made out of freshwater pearls, coin pearls, crystal hearts and silver findings.
I buy all my pearls and jewelery making supplies from my friend Karen's beautiful shop Dragonfly Dreams.

I'd like to say thank you to all the lovely people who leave their beautiful comments on my blog. You don't know how much they mean to me. Its nice to know that people are appreciating the things that you do. I hope that you all have a lovely weekend.

Charity and WIP

This sampler is called Charity and is another CrossN"Patch Sampler that I did a few years ago. Actually I have done this one twice. One of my SIL's has it. I have done about 5 of these samplers but this is the only one that I have. I love this because of all the different stitches in it. It is also the one that I learnt to do hardanger on.
I love the saying that this one has. "Random Acts of Kindness" and the Queen stitches among the word charity.
This is the progress on Karen's "The Token". It is now moving along and hopefully will be finished in the next few days. Its a pity that I have to do housework as I would definitely be finished. I think I only have one or two medium size motifs to finish along with a couple of small ones.

Thank You

I would just like to say a big thank you for all the support and comfort that I have been receiving.

Its nice to know that I have so many friends around the world in the stitching fraternity. My Mum was very special to me. Over the years we have nearly lost her on a couple of occasions but she was a lady with very strong will power and got through a lot of illnesses that were thrown her way. She used to set her self goals such the Sydney Olympics or seeing my sons grow up. All of which she met. When I get upset I just tell myself that its ok, that she is no longer in any pain and is at peace. This is a great comfort for my family.

Also over the years when something like this happens to me I find that I turn to my needlework. Some of the work that I have already posted have special meaning to me.

Anyway, thank you all from the bottom of my heart - Sandra.

Goodbye Mum

I have posted this sampler before. It was the last one that I gave my Mum a few months ago for her birthday. Unfortunately for my family my Mum passed away just before 6 a.m. last Thursday morning. She had been very ill for a long time and was fighting her 4th bout of cancer. Although we knew that she was very ill and she would leave us soon when it actually happened it was a shock to all of us.

She had a terrible time from when she was admitted to a local private hospital on the Friday . She signed herself out on the Tuesday but we had to have her admitted to a public hospital on the Wednesday as my Dad and Sister couldn't lift her when she collapsed.

Thankfully for all of us that "The God's were Smiling on Her". From when the ambulance people came we met the most wonderful and caring people. She was admitted to Calvary Hospital which is a hospice on Wednesday afternoon and she had the most wonderful care from the nursing staff and Doctors. We think that she was so happy to be there that she decided that this was it and she left us.

I have been down with my Dad and Sister since Tuesday. Mum's funeral was yesterday and I came home last night to be with my DH and sons.

When I came home I had the most beautiful surprise. I love old fashion roses and everyone of them are currently in bloom along with poppies and other flowers. I have so many roses that I could supply a florist.

Also on the day that Mum passed away we had a lovely visit. My Mum used to love to feed the birds on her back veranda. Over the last couple of months she had been so ill and hadn't been able to feed them so that had stopped calling. On Thursday afternoon we were sitting around the dining table looking through the sliding doors when 2 Kookaburras came and landed on the veranda rail. They stayed with us for about and hour and a half and my husband and sons were feeding them. They allowed them to get right up close to them and I suppose that they could have touched them. My husband has a photo of them on this phone and if I can get it on the computer I will put it on my blog.